Commentator: … still playing well in the last quarter. And the Bombers have surrendered their crown to Brisbane. Brisbane win their first AFL title.

Paul Barclay: On the last Saturday in September, AFL football hysteria came to Brisbane, when the local team, the Brisbane Lions, won the premiership.

It was a momentous occasion for the Lions, and the city's growing band of fans celebrated with gusto. The Australian Football League shared in the celebrations, too. Because for the first time in AFL's history, the Aussie Rules premiers were a team from Queensland, a State where the rival game, Rugby League, was used to ruling the roost.

With the Lions winning the premiership, a major bridge was crossed in the AFL's quest to make Australian Football a truly national sport.

Hallo, I'm Paul Barclay and this is Background Briefing on Radio National.

Andrew Ireland is an ex-footballer and Chief Executive of the Brisbane Lions Football Club. I met him at the Lions' headquarters, where in the reception area Brisbane's Grand Final triumph is being replayed over and over again on the TV set.

Brisbane Lions footballer: … we were doing the hard work. You know we just knew if we kept pushing it, if we kept tackling …

Paul Barclay: Ireland says Brisbane's victory, as well as premierships to the Adelaide Crows and West Coast Eagles from W.A. in the past decade, indicates the AFL is succeeding in its mission to nationalise the competition.

Andrew Ireland: The AFL can be very proud of its recent record. Since 1990, 12 different clubs of the 16 have played in the Grand Final, six clubs have won the Grand Final, and that now, with us winning, means that you've got Queensland, Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia.

Paul Barclay: And that's a dramatically different scenario from when you were playing the game, isn't it? When it was really a raffle between maybe three clubs?

Andrew Ireland: That's right. And I think you only have to look at somewhere like the Premier League in British soccer where you've got a Manchester United who, fantastic club, but its financial muscle and ability just to keep getting better players, means that it is completely out of whack with the rest of the competition.

Paul Barclay: Not all that long ago the Lions were a basket case, the laughing stock of the national Aussie Rules competition. Now they're the best in the land, and they've got every reason to be grateful to the AFL for their fortunes. Grateful because the AFL positively discriminates in favour of the lowly teams, as Brisbane once were, by giving them first pick of the prize recruits via what's called a draft.

The AFL doesn't just allocate players according to need. It also shares its revenue more or less equally. It's an attempt to engineer an even competition. A level playing field, if you like.

 

"We don't want to see clubs falling out the bottom of the competition or clubs having prolonged periods when they can't win. "

Andrew Ireland: It was interesting, Bill Kelty said he's never seen such a socialist organisation in his life. But I think that it is a benefit to the competition. We are as competitive as anyone and all 16 clubs go out I guess to do the best they can but I think that you also have to understand that our strength comes from all of the 16, and so we don't want to see clubs falling out the bottom of the competition or clubs having prolonged periods when they can't win.

Paul Barclay: It's a strange place, the world of AFL football, where a socialist ideal like revenue sharing somehow sits comfortably with a half-a-billion-dollar television deal with Kerry Packer and Rupert Murdoch.

These media moguls will pay that much to the AFL over the next five years. It's a record amount for Australian sport. And all the clubs, regardless of their size or ratings power, will get an equal share of the spoils.

The AFL calls this approach to revenue sharing 'equalisation'. And it's helping to prop up poor clubs like the Western Bulldogs in Melbourne. The Bulldogs, whose heritage can be traced back to the late 19th century, is an important part of the heart and soul of the AFL competition. But they are in real financial trouble, along with at least three other Victorian clubs.

The Bulldogs and all of the Victorian clubs in the AFL have a tradition that goes back to the days when the competition was a parochial Saturday afternoon ritual in the suburbs of Melbourne. And the AFL wants all of them to remain in the competition, even though year after year, clubs like the Bulldogs struggle to get by.

Perhaps a 16-team national competition simply can't support 10 clubs from Victoria, even with the helping hand of equalisation.

Andrew Ireland doesn't agree and says all the clubs must survive.

Andrew Ireland: If the AFL lost a couple of its Melbourne-based clubs, it would have a huge backlash from people in Melbourne and even some of the supporters of the stronger financial clubs, and so there's a real balance here in terms of what level of equalisation you need to supply to at least ensure that the smallest club in your competition can still exist. There will always be teams that perhaps have got smaller natural resources in terms of where they draw their crowds from, and clearly a team like the Bulldogs, Western Suburbs Melbourne with a changing population, will probably find that they haven't got the same advantages as say an Adelaide Football Club with their 40,000 members. So it's always difficult to actually pinpoint whether in my mind they could be running as hard as they could and have the most effective management, but it still might be pretty hard for them to make ends meet.

Paul Barclay: Andrew Ireland of the Brisbane Lions.

Song: Greg Champion - 'That's the thing about Football'.

I'll meet a friend outside the ground,
We'll argue over who's going to win,
He'll go for his team, I for mine,
We'll watch them slug it out right to the end,
And show me the crowd and I'll take my place -

Paul Barclay: The AFL season finished a couple of months ago but there's been feverish activity off the footy field. Players have been traded, some in controversial circumstances.

Last weekend there was the national player draft, where the best young hopefuls in Australia were divvied up among the clubs.

Club presidents, like Collingwood's Eddie McGuire, and businessman John Elliot from the Carlton Football Club, are preparing for Annual General Meetings later this month. And David Smorgon, a man respected for his business acumen, will have his work cut out for him trying to shore up the future of the Western Bulldogs. Joe Gutnick will stand again for the presidency of the Melbourne Football Club after resigning in dramatic circumstances during the season.

As well, decisions will be made about the future of football's state-of-the-art Colonial Stadium. Colonial's the home ground of the Essendon Football Club, one of the biggest teams in the competition, and the team followed religiously by Treasurer Peter Costello. But this hasn't prevented the privately owned stadium from virtually collapsing under the weight of its own debt.

And behind the closed doors of the AFL's boardroom, major decisions are being made. Just last week it was announced an $11-million fund will be set up to assist impoverished clubs like the Bulldogs and the North Melbourne Kangaroos.

Eddie McGuire: … Foxtel, Channel Nine, Channel Ten and News Limited consortium …

Paul Barclay: Eddie McGuire is one of the personalities of AFL football. Together with Sam Newman and others, he fronts Channel Nine's AFL Footy Show. A self-made man raised in the working class suburb of Broadmeadows on the outskirts of Melbourne, Eddie's become a wealthy man. And President of the Collingwood Football Club.

Eddie runs his own media company, which has a very basic office at Channel Nine in Melbourne. Here he tells me he doesn't want to see any of the traditional Victorian clubs go to the wall. He says, with some assistance and with all the money coming into the AFL competition from the five-year TV deal, the struggling teams should have a future.

 

"Maybe what we need to do... is allow the bigger clubs to get out and do a little bit more in the marketplace themselves, so we can actually grow the pie and give a bit more to our smaller brothers."

Eddie McGuire: At Collingwood are certainly very strongly behind the other Melbourne-based clubs, those that are in danger, which are probably the Western Bulldogs and the Kangaroos, and we'd like to see them survive, we want them to survive. But we believe that this five-year period is a period where football can really get itself going. We don't want to suffer the sins that's happened in the Rugby League, where clubs have been merged and put out of business, and they've lost the fabric of what the game's all about. This is very much a tribal game, and we have only each other. We have 16 teams in this competition, we don't play internationally, we have to look after the teams that are there. All they have to do is make sure that we can generate enough revenue, whether that comes through the TV, some extra help from the AFL - and I think that there's nothing wrong with that. If it is absolutely written in stone, how this will be used, that they should maybe receive a little bit extra money than a dividend, that Collingwood and Essendon and Carlton who can generate their own funds, and maybe what we need to do to compensate that, is allow the bigger clubs to get out and do a little bit more in the marketplace themselves, so we can actually grow the pie and give a bit more to our smaller brothers.

Paul Barclay: You're a successful businessman, Eddie, but you're sounding a bit like a socialist the way you're talking here about redistributing income from the rich to the poor?

Eddie McGuire: Yes, well there's a bit of that in it, yes. No, I mean I don't know whether my politics come into place, or it may have been my background.

Paul Barclay: On the field, football teams are ruthlessly competitive. Weaknesses are seized on and exploited. But the business of running the AFL is more benevolent. Competition is strictly regulated to protect the strong clubs from getting stronger, and the weak getting weaker. A salary cap limits the amount of money any team can spend on its player payroll. And a player draft gives bottom-of-the-ladder clubs first pick of the best players as they become available.

Professional sporting competitions like the AFL might be a business, but Monash University economist, Ross Booth explains sport and business ultimately have different aims.

 

"In a sporting competition you want to beat your opponent, but you don't want them to disappear. "

Ross Booth: Unlike business, where a firm might want its competitor to disappear and get a monopoly, in a sporting competition you want to beat your opponent, but you don't want them to disappear. One of the arguments in sporting economics is that you have measures to try and even up the competition to sustain the number of teams in it. So in the AFL's case and in many leagues around the world, I guess there's two major planks, equalisation of revenue or revenue sharing, and devices to even up the distribution of player talent such as a player draft or salary cap and others.

Paul Barclay: There are over 600 footballers playing at the top level. And they play an athletic game, which requires breakneck pace and sharp hand and foot skills. No wonder then, it's the game Aboriginal kids play with such verve and flair in places like the Tiwi Islands, or the remote communities of Central Australia.

The AFL says it attracts a good share of the nation's best athletes, some of whom would make elite track and field competitors. But there's a much better living to be made out of AFL footy than in track and field. A top player like North Melbourne's Wayne Carey is said to earn a million dollars a year.

As professional athletes, AFL players have agents, people who are paid to represent them and help maximise their earning potential. They're a bit like the character Jerry McGuire, played by Tom Cruise.

Jerry: Show me the money.

Player: I need to feel you Jerry!

Jerry: Show me the money!

Player: Jerry you'd better yell!

Jerry: Show me the money!

Paul Barclay: Just as AFL footballers can earn mega dollars, they can also find themselves put on the market. They may have had a bad year, or be asking for too much money. Whatever the reason, the salary cap means that teams need to closely scrutinise their players and be judicious about how they spend their limited salary budget.

Only a select few champions are safe from the prospect of being traded. Even good footballers can find themselves treated as a tradable commodity who can be exchanged for someone who's younger, or taller, faster, it all depends on what the team requires.

During October, just after the footy season had climaxed, and the Brisbane Lions were still celebrating their premiership victory, AFL clubs engaged in the annual ritual of post-season trading. It's a meat market. Some players found out in the media they'd been earmarked for trading.

Marvin Weinberg is a lawyer and player agent. From the boardroom in his office he told me this year's player trading period was particularly unedifying.

Marvin Weinberg: Look, I think this year was probably the worst I've seen in all the years that I've been involved in this, but equally, the pressures are mounting, and particularly at a club like Essendon where they have been particularly successful over the last few years, a number of the players quite rightly are entitled to put up their hands for more money, and that creates further pressures and it's very difficult to keep an improving list within the salary cap, and that creates the pressure.

Paul Barclay: But do you think the clubs could deal with the negotiations and the decision-making and passing on the information to their players better than perhaps they did this year?

 

"A number of players only really found out that they were subject to trade when they saw their names in the newspapers."

Marvin Weinberg: Look, absolutely. I think that's one of the big fall downs of the system as it operated this year. A number of players only really found out that they were subject to trade when they saw their names in the newspapers, or heard about it by rumour, and I think it is important that clubs are honest with players and they tell them right from the outset exactly what they're proposing to do and how they're proposing to go about it.

Paul Barclay: Football clubs trade players to improve their overall chances of success. But the salary cap makes this a delicate balancing act.

Successful teams like Essendon, grand finalists this year and premiers the year before, have many very good players. These players could earn big dollars on the open market, and with a limit on how much a club can spend on salaries, it's a tough challenge for a side such as Essendon to keep all of its best players.

But because they're a successful side, and because loyalty still counts for something in the AFL, players will often remain with a club like Essendon even if it means earning considerably less than they'd get elsewhere. Marvin Weinberg.

Marvin Weinberg: Oh look I think that's very well documented that players understand that they accept less to remain at the club, whereas on an open market, with other clubs that are willing to pick them up, they would be prepared to pay substantially more in many cases than what they are earning. So it is a combination of loyalty to the existing club, it's a desire for success, it's familiarity and I guess it's also fear of the unknown.

Paul Barclay: One of Marvin Weinberg's high profile clients is Essendon's Joe Misiti.

Commentator: And Misiti can straighten up and another one on the board - to the Bombers!

Paul Barclay: Joe Misiti is known in the vernacular of Aussie Rules as a 'ball magnet', because on the field he gets so much of the footy. He's a hardworking mid-fielder, a premiership player, and a sought-after footballer.

Essendon thought their salary cap restrictions may mean they wouldn't be able to afford to keep him. He was touted for trade, and was deeply offended by it. Clubs like Collingwood and Geelong waved their chequebooks under his nose. In the end, fences were mended, and Weinberg struck a deal on Misiti's behalf that meant he could stay with his Essendon team mates. But his loyalty cost him financially.

Marvin Weinberg: I don't really want to delve into specific figures, but I guess it's fair to say that to stay at a club like Essendon you'd probably take anywhere as much as 25% to 30% less than what you could get elsewhere.

Paul Barclay: And that's simply because of the salary cap?

Marvin Weinberg: Simply because of Essendon's salary cap situation, and because other clubs, in order to lure a player of Joe's ability, would be prepared to pay significantly more to get him into their club.

Paul Barclay: So money isn't everything when it comes to professional footballers?

Marvin Weinberg: Despite what a lot of people would have you believe, that's exactly right.

Paul Barclay: Footy fans by and large take the business of trading players in their stride. They know there are limits to loyalty in the professional era, and clever trading means their side stands a better chance of success next year.

But this year when the Hawthorn Football Club made a particularly ruthless trading decision to offload one of its popular young players, Trent Croad, it caused a furore among the club's supporters. Fans turned on their beloved club. The issue became a hot topic on Melbourne talkback radio, including Neil Mitchell's program on 3AW.

Neil Mitchell: Jan, hallo.

Jan: Hallo, Neil. Neil I'm just ringing up to express my disappointment in the Hawthorn Football Club. I've followed them 50 years and I love them, they're part of my blood, like Melbourne is to you. I can't believe it, I simply can't believe that they'll let this young fellow go. Who's going to be a champion in whatever club he goes to.

Neil Mitchell: Don't you trust your coaches?

Jan: No, I don't.

Neil Mitchell: Oh, OK. Well one of them's a former Melbourne player, that's why.

Jan: No. I sometimes think that they don't stop and think, it's all money, isn't it? Don't you think?

Neil Mitchell: Yes. Thanks Jan, thank you for calling. Hallo Angus.

Angus: Hallo Neil. I was the organiser of last night's rally at the Hawthorn Football Club to protest the trading of Trent Croad.

Neil Mitchell: Oh, you got quite a turn-up didn't you? How many did you get there?

Angus: We did, yes. We got over 400 names on a petition which I've just delivered to the Hawthorn Football Club.

Neil Mitchell: What did they say?

Angus: They said they'd take it on board and yes, that's about all they'll say at the moment. They won't say they definitely won't trade him or anything like that.

Paul Barclay: Trent Croad was dispatched by Hawthorn to bottom-of-the-table club, Fremantle, in exchange for the right to pick the best junior player in the country at last weekend's national player draft. It may prove to be an astute trade, but for many Hawthorn fans it took the trading game too far.

Trent Croad and all other AFL footballers have their own union. It's called the AFL Players' Association. Rob Kerr is Chief Executive; he says Hawthorn's treatment of Croad damaged the club's image.

Rob Kerr: The backlash with the Trent Croad trading scenario would suggest that it wasn't particularly good for Hawthorn, and the club had to work hard to try and claw back some ground in its supporters' eyes, and I think it probably does diminish the game, to a degree. Because it really does reduce it very much to players as tradable commodities and you know, there's certainly a place for the trade, but just the respect you have for the players, for the club, because sometimes it works the other way, I think we just need to tighten up that area, because it doesn't reflect well on the game when these sorts of things are played out in the media and you've got emotional reactions from players and clubs and supporters, which could have been circumvented had it been managed a little better.

Paul Barclay: Players swapping clubs is not a new phenomenon, it's been happening for years. However this year's unsavoury meat market promoted a bad image of the AFL and some of its clubs. Essentially much of this year's ferocious trading was caused by the salary cap. If there was no salary cap, rich clubs wouldn't be under the same pressure to trade players. They'd just pay their better players more, and use their financial muscle to build a dominant team.

But the salary cap, together with the player draft, are essential elements in the AFL's equalisation policy. And together, they prevent rich, successful teams like Carlton or Essendon, from dominating the competition.

Sports journalist Patrick Smith writes sardonically on football for The Australian newspaper. He also follows the political machinations of the AFL and it's clubs. Smith says the rich clubs accept equalisation because the alternative would ruin the entire AFL competition.

 

"If it's dog eat dog, then the competition would be reduced to six teams. "

Patrick Smith: It stops Carlton from going into the marketplace saying 'We've got $8-million and we'll take the best ten players thank you very much.' It can't do that any more, it used to do it, it used to win premierships, and the same with Essendon. Essendon would be in a terribly strong position if there were no salary cap and no draft. But the clubs have agreed that the competition can only work if they abide by those rules. The very powerful clubs, Carlton, Essendon, Richmond, Hawthorn is now a powerful club, because what it's been able to do is grow a membership base. Those clubs have agreed that the competition only survives really if you have a salary cap and if you have a draft. If it's dog eat dog, then the competition would be reduced to six teams.

Paul Barclay: The AFL raises hundreds of millions of dollars through the sale of TV rights, AFL sponsorship and membership revenue and merchandising. It then splits this money among the clubs.

Bob Stewart is an academic who lives within a couple of Tony Lockett-sized drop punts from the old Hawthorn football ground in Melbourne. He's one of a surprising number of scholars who studies Australian Football.

Associate Professor at the Victoria University, and co-author of 'More Than a Game, an unauthorised history of Australian football', Stewart says there's nothing new about the regulation of Australian football. In fact it's part of the tradition of the competition.

Bob Stewart: It's been with the AFL and what was previously called the VFL for well probably 70 years, so traditionally there's always been a desire on the part of the regulators of the game to create a competition that has what we call competitive balance, and in fact in 1917 there was a system of allocating regions of Melbourne a particular team. Here the aim was not to allow a particular team, particularly rich teams, to get all the best players, and therefore dominate the competition. And of course that's continued and I think of all the football codes around the world, the only other code that would have the sort of regulation that the AFL would have, would be the National Football League in the United States, and in fact we've used and copied the draft to a large extent, and the salary cap as well. And I would argue that one of its great strengths going into the 21st century is that there is this guaranteed minimum income for competing clubs.

Paul Barclay: But I would have thought there were periods during even given that the game was regulated where sides dominated and where maybe two or three sides were sharing the premierships amongst themselves. The current way the competition is structured, many more sides are making it into the finals, we're not really seeing eras of teams dominating. Does that indicate that the level of regulation has been cranked up even further?

Bob Stewart: Yes it does. Australian Football, the AFL, is probably the most regulated football competition in the world.

Paul Barclay: In regulating to keep a check on the wealthy, and offering assistance to the poor, the AFL would appear to be following the egalitarian tradition of the 'fair go'. Phil Cleary's an ex-footballer. He was also for a short time, an Independent MP in the Federal parliament. To Cleary, there's nothing altruistic in the AFL's equalisation approach.

Phil Cleary: I think it really reflects the great inequality in the game in fact, that's the irony of it, that the difference between an Essendon and a Western Bulldogs is so stark and the only way the competition could survive was to bring in those mechanisms like the draft, and salary cap, to ensure that the Essendons of the world didn't dominate the process. All I'd say is that the AFL did that because it had to, otherwise the competition would have fallen apart and it would have been left with four teams, you know.

Paul Barclay: So it doesn't reflect any egalitarian ethos, or anything like that?

Phil Cleary: It's not an ideology, it's a business practice.

Paul Barclay: Lynne: Good afternoon, my name is Lynne and I'm going to take you on an information voyage around the wonderful parts of our Colonial Stadium. All right, this seating area here on my right, round to where you can just see where these screens are put up, this area costs you $29,000 for a five-year contract. It's a $5,000 deposit and you can pay it off over the five years. That membership entitles you to all the football games here, held at the Stadium -

Paul Barclay: Welcome to the exclusive 'Medallion Club' at Colonial Stadium in Melbourne's Docklands area. It's the newest and glitziest football stadium in the country.

Lynne: … also the video screens you have here. You can have Sky Channel, you can watch the game live, you can watch the replays on there. Video games can be played on there, and you can even watch Days of our Lives if you wish.

Paul Barclay: We're at Colonial Stadium because it symbolises how far Australian football has shifted from its suburban roots. How the game's becoming more corporate. Colonial Stadium has been open two years, and it's virtually gone broke, last week registering a $225-million write-down.

Eddie McGuire remembers the vision Colonial had of an upmarket stadium, and agrees it alienated the average punter from the very beginning.

Eddie McGuire: Look I sat and watched at the Melbourne Town Hall, the first announcement of it, and how they were going to do it, and the bloke in charge of Colonial got up and said, 'Football fans in this town have had it too easy, too long, we're going to teach them how to go to the football.' And he had this grand plan that they were going to alight from the boutiques of Collins Street and go down on the tram and go via Southbank and have a cheeky chardonnay on the way to the ground. I'm thinking No, they're going to get on at Glen Burby(?) station on the Broadmeadows line, with their beanies and scarves, they want to get in, maybe get a cold beer, get a hot dog for the kids and watch a good game of footy. So they had it cocked up from the start.

Paul Barclay: Colonial is a stadium that also doubles as a huge studio, purpose-built for telecasting football. Here, even in the depths of winter, the rain won't spoil the game for the TV viewer. Or the spectator at the ground. That's because there's a retractable roof. Colonial also includes a mini entertainment precinct, featuring bars, serving fine wine and upmarket dining facilities. Ex-Mushroom Records chief, Michael Gudinski's got a nightclub here.

But this stadium of the future is yet to be fully embraced by footy fans, and unless a rescue plan is approved, is likely to go into administration or liquidation.

Patrick Smith, football writer with The Australian newspaper acerbically took to calling it Calamity Castle. He says it was based on a flawed philosophy.

 

"A very competent man, but he was telling Melbourne how they would watch sport. Melbourne said, 'Sorry, we watch it on our terms'."

Patrick Smith: Jacques Merkus was the Chief Executive of Colonial when they established Colonial and he said, 'Well I'm going to change the way people watch sport in Melbourne.' That was the end of his reign, really. A very competent man, but he was telling Melbourne how they would watch sport. Melbourne said, 'Sorry, we watch it on our terms', and Jacques Merkus' terms was that everybody would pre-book a ticket, and you wouldn't get into the ground without a ticket and your seat would be allocated four and five days ahead. We don't watch sport that way in Melbourne, we never did, we never have and we never will I don't think.

Paul Barclay: Colonial opened its gates last year. But it opened before it was ready. And because the stadium was designed according to the pre-booking philosophy, it couldn't cope when the punters didn't book, preferring to turn up and buy their tickets just before the game. There were large queues, supporters were stuck outside the ground long after matches had begun. Colonial Stadium is light years away from the suburban grounds where Phil Cleary used to play and coach in the Victorian Football Association competition, and he thinks it lacks the atmosphere of the best footy grounds. He also views Colonial Stadium as a metaphor for the neglect of grassroots football supporters.

Phil Cleary: I think they took the average punter for granted yet again. They concentrated on the corporate sector, they promoted it as a ground of the corporate watcher. Even the advertising ignored the barracker, and just showed corporate entities watching this game. It was if there wasn't even a game of football on, it was like it was a business house for the corporates. So it was poorly conceived, and there's a lesson in it: you leave the average punter out of the equation at your peril.

Paul Barclay: Colonial's original managers are gone. The place is now run by Chief Executive, Ian Collins. He insists the new regime has made important changes and there's no residual spectator resistance to the Stadium.

Ian Collins: Well I think with different management and now we're marching to a different song, I think that's changed with change in management and I think now that we're responding to what the supporters want, rather than trying to change their views and their habits.

Paul Barclay: The other criticism that's been levelled at the ground principally by some of the tenants, the Western Bulldogs for example have said it simply costs too much money for them to play at Colonial, the break-even gate figure is too high and I understand they've opted to play more games at Optus Oval as a result. What's your comment on that?

Ian Collins: I would challenge that, because we do know what our costs are comparative to the MCG, and we're under that. I think where people are misled is that the issue is that Optus Oval, which has a smaller infrastructure, may be able to cater for lesser crowds than say Colonial Stadium. The other thing I would argue, and challenge clubs that say that, is that when they were at Optus Oval, did they generate the revenues at that venue as against what they've generated at Colonial? I think the answer to that is that Colonial far exceeds Optus Oval and that's one of the reasons that Carlton had decided to play a number of their games next year here. The real issue is that perhaps their projections weren't in line with reality in regard to what they could generate out of the Stadium.

Paul Barclay: The AFL and its football clubs is a hotbed of innuendo, intrigue and power politics. Wealthy men with big egos run AFL clubs. Some of them are household names. And there's a rumour mill to match that of the corridors of Parliament House, Canberra.

The inner sanctum of the AFL is a commission of eight men who control the game. They rarely talk to the media. And they're elected by the 16 club presidents, ten of whom are presidents of Victorian clubs. As the number starkly indicates, the Victorians have a lot of clout.

Earlier this year, a Commissioner, Terry O'Connor, was dumped by the presidents. It was the first time a Commissioner had ever been voted off. The media reported that O'Connor had fallen foul of some of the powerful Victorian presidents. A number of reports claimed Carlton president, John Elliot, was the ringleader of the coup. Because votes are secret, it's impossible to know the truth behind the power play. But I spoke with Terry O'Connor, who's a West Australian QC, and head of the State's Anti Corruption Commission. And on the phone from his home in Perth he told me why he thought he was voted off the AFL Commission.

Terry O'Connor: Oh I think there were a variety of reasons. There were some Victorian club presidents who felt that the Commission needed to be taught a lesson and I was probably expendable because I was actually from Western Australia, not a Victorian, so they didn't have to see me all the time. There were others, one or two perhaps, who had it that it was a personality thing; there were others who were concerned about what was perceived to be my attitude to the number of clubs. I had in the past expressed the view that ten teams in Victoria was too many. In more recent times however, I had come to the view that the effect of removing any from the competition was such that it was going to cause too much damage to be worthwhile, but maybe other ways around the problem needed to be found.

Paul Barclay: With at least four Melbourne-based clubs feeling financially insecure, Terry O'Connor thinks a number of Victorian club presidents decided the time was right to flex their muscles and show the Commission who was boss. He also, cryptically accused some club presidents of being disingenuous.

 

"Some of the people who make the most noise are not all that financially insecure"

Terry O'Connor: I think some of the people who make the most noise are not all that financially insecure, I've got to say.

Paul Barclay: But they see themselves as perhaps being guardians of those clubs who are?

Terry O'Connor: No, no. They sometimes say they are, but in fact when push comes to shove, they are no more interested in the weaker clubs than they are in clubs that are not in Victoria.

Paul Barclay: So there's an element of disingenuous behaviour then?

Terry O'Connor: Oh, I've no doubt about that.

Paul Barclay: Would you be referring to John Elliot?

Terry O'Connor: I think if the cap fits, John could wear it, yes.

Paul Barclay: Terry O'Connor, QC.

Background Briefing sought an interview with John Elliot for this program, but unfortunately he was not available.

Equalisation may be the buzzword of the moment at the AFL, but don't be deceived. It's not all caring and sharing. A couple of months ago, the AFL announced special help would be given to the Sydney Swans and Brisbane Lions. These two clubs would be allowed to draft an additional player from their State. The AFL argued the concession would help develop the game in these Rugby League States.

But for Collingwood President, Eddie McGuire, this would have given the two clubs an unfair advantage. He hit the roof. Lawyers were briefed, he got involved in a war of words with Sydney Swans Chairman, Richard Colless, and he claimed the AFL was cheating.

Eddie McGuire: I said it was tantamount to cheating, and quite simply it was because they were given an unfair advantage in the draft. Now I have no problem with the philosophy behind what was trying to be achieved. I had a big problem, and when I say 'I', I, Collingwoo, and 15 other clubs believed that there was a problem, sorry make that 14 clubs. The Sydney Swans were getting the free run on this, even the Brisbane Lions were embarrassed by it. When it was really looked at, the Commission overturned it, not because there was any pressure on it, but because they realised it was a dud idea.

Paul Barclay: Is it true that you actually threatened to take this to the United Nations at one stage?

 

"It was ultimately proven to be an unfair rule."

Eddie McGuire: No, no, look, the vernacular of football is sometimes fruity and that's all part of the fun of the fair, and emotions are high and the like, and we said that we would certainly pursue this as far as possible, because we thought that it was and believe, and it was ultimately proven to be, an unfair rule.

Paul Barclay: Eddie McGuire. In the end the AFL backed down on the draft concessions.

Crowd sounds

Paul Barclay: The AFL may have its share of drama, politics and backbiting but it means little to the fans. To them it's all about their team, and the game they play.

Right now, countless numbers of fans will be poring over the minutiae of last week's draft, hoping their team's hit the jackpot and recruited a champion of the future. And they'll be speculating on their team's prospects for next season.

Man: And you know what she does after the game that they lose? Doesn't want to talk to anybody, just goes home in a bloody huff. It's not bullshit, is it?

Man: No, I've been doing that all my life, mate.

Paul Barclay: For those with no interest in the AFL, it's hard to fathom why so many people care so much about the game. But they do care. Attendances reached 6-1/2-million last season. For many fans their spirits soar if their team wins, and some will cry and be miserable for days if their team loses. To many supporters, it's not just a game. Team allegiance is part of their being.

Academic Bob Stewart from Victoria University, has been delving into the mysterious world of the sports fan. And he's talked to Aussie Rules fans to try and understand what's behind their passion.

 

"That is what being a sports fan is all about, loyalty. Not just loyalty over a couple of years, but loyalty over your sporting lifetime."

Bob Stewart: Myself and a colleague have been doing some qualitative research with sports fans. In other words we've gone out and interviewed them in depth about why they are a sports fan, how they became a sports fan, what they value about being a sports fan. And the one thing they value most is the concept of loyalty. We challenged them on this and said, Well you know, does it really matter whether you change your team or not? Who cares whether you move from say the Saints one year to the Demons the next? Would anyone really be concerned? And people inevitably said Yes, they would , and Yes it is important to be loyal, because that is what being a sports fan is all about, loyalty. Not just loyalty over a couple of years, but loyalty over your sporting lifetime. And we were quite surprised by this, but we understand that that's how people view their fanship, and that's why a game like Australian football is so popular and is so connected to the community because of that tremendous emphasis on loyalty.

Paul Barclay: Loyalty for the true AFL fan means remaining faithful to your club through thick and thin. It's an old-fashioned, romantic ideal. And at odds with the modern world, where clubs treat their players like cattle. And footballers will only remain loyal to their team as long as the price is right. It's a paradox then, that football fans continue to value loyalty so profoundly.

Bob Stewart says for the sanguine footy fan loyalty is tempered with pragmatism.

Bob Stewart: They're also astute enough to realise that with the trades, their team can often get an advantage. So on one hand they demand loyalty, but on the other hand they also want their team to be successful in the following season. And what the trade does is in fact give them that opportunity so they can start afresh at the beginning of the next year and say Yes, we've got these new recruits. As St Kilda believed they did this current year, Yes, this will be our season. So what it does, yes it breeds some cynicism, but it also breeds pragmatism, that the fan is very knowledgeable, and they understand that there are regulations in place, that while may might lead to unsavoury trading, in the end might benefit their club.

Paul Barclay: Phil Cleary used to play football and coach it. He's now a football commentator for ABC Television, and dabbles in politics, among other things.

When I turn up to talk to him in a cramped Essendon office, just before the election, he's on the phone to pollster Gary Morgan, crunching numbers as part of his ultimately failed campaign for the Senate.

Phil Cleary: But the problem is that that other doesn't take into account. So when did you do that poll? Why didn't you put my name into it? Well we … But Phil Cleary Independents is a party group above the line. You put One Nation and they've got no hope. Whereas I did, I was ringing your office, you've been overseas in Venice. So what have you been doing, having a holiday? Oh, good on you. Why don't you do another one?

Paul Barclay: Phil Cleary reckons the National AFL competition has drifted away from its suburban roots, but he does agree with Bob Stewart that a strong tribal sense of team loyalty remains.

Phil Cleary: People are still fanatical about the game. I have conversations with people that still stagger me. You know, the level of their one-eyedness, you know, towards the game, their hatred of the umpire, their hatred of the opposition. It's a wonderful thing that people are so tribal about the game, it is fantastic, I love that part of it. So it's still there. And also you can't ignore the fact that when players play within one club, they develop a great respect and love of the club. But the fact that clubs can more readily trade them and are more prepared to trade them, does bring about a crisis in faith.

Paul Barclay: Australian Football and the AFL competition are moving into a new era next year. The cosy relationship the AFL long enjoyed with Channel 7 has come to an end.

Next year, Channels 9, 10 and Foxtel will broadcast the game. And dramatically increase exposure to it. They paid out a huge sum for the privilege, and that money may well prove to be the financial saviour of the poor clubs, in the short term at least.

But Phil Cleary warns the AFL must not let television dictate the terms. The game must retain its emphasis on the barrackers. Those who turn up in their hundreds of thousands every week. If they don't the AFL will become just another TV sport, competing with other global sports, like soccer.

Phil Cleary: If Aussie Rules takes its cue from television, then it's not going to be any more distinctive from soccer. The difference is that soccer's global, and that means that soccer will bring with it a kind of cultural tapestry that makes it a powerful entity on the television set. Australian Rules competes at its peril, at disadvantage.

Paul Barclay: The man who'll front Channel Nine's television coverage of AFL football will be Eddie McGuire. He agrees the distinctive aspect of the AFL is the crowds. But says TV will enhance the competition.

Eddie McGuire: I'll probably get shot for saying this, but you know, football on TV is fantastic. Football live is unbelievable, and I don't think you'll ever miss that. And I think there is a fantastic opportunity. You might get 100,000 at the Grand Final but 1.5-million are watching it, so TV does get it to so many more people. A lot of people these days haven't got the time to go to the game, but they still love it. So I think that's a bit of an old legacy these days. I think people are saying you know that TV's this shocking beast. If you get it in harness, like they've been able to do in most sports around the world, you know, you look at soccer when Murdoch took over, everyone said, 'Oh that's a disgrace, it's going to be -' soccer is now huge in England, it has gone past every other sport at a thousand miles an hour. And I think we've got the opportunity to do this with football.

Paul Barclay: Aussie Rules is a provincial game in a global world. And the world game is soccer. The AFL's well aware of this. They know that on weekends all around the country, legions of kids play soccer, not Aussie Rules.

Phil Cleary says they're also aware that the parents of these kids regard it has a safer sport, less violent than the Australian game.

Phil Cleary: The AFL administrators know this, they're very conscious of the role of soccer, and hence a lot of the tribunal kind of interpretations and rule changes are based around the challenge of soccer. They're saying to the mothers of Australia, 'Look, our game is not dangerous', because they think that soccer is perceived as a less dangerous game. So I know that this is an understanding held by AFL administrators.

Paul Barclay: Last Monday morning at AFL Headquarters it's likely the administrators of the game sighed with relief. The looming threat of soccer gaining a serious foothold in Australia was struck a crippling blow.

Commentator: Well another stake has been hammered through the heart of Australian soccer, and there's that familiar sickly feeling of really deep hurt that only comes when you're desperately close to success. As the Socceroos were here today -

Paul Barclay: Australian soccer would've enjoyed a massive shot in the arm if they'd beaten Uruguay last week. $15-million from soccer's world body, FIFA, and an estimated $20-million in sponsorship and marketing revenue would've poured into Australian soccer's coffers. But the Socceroos fell at the last hurdle.

Soccer still poses a threat to the Australian game, though. A growing number of sports fans watch the English Premier League on TV. And about 150 Australians are playing soccer internationally, some earning millions of dollars a year.

But Patrick Smith says the AFL has a simple philosophy for entrenching itself as the country's main game.

Patrick Smith: If you make your product as good as it is, it's an indigenous game and therefore has a certain place in this society anyway, in this community. If you make it as good as you can, it will then survive against the international sport.

Commentator: And it will be Australia's ball.
Siren
And there's the siren. Ireland have won.

Paul Barclay: For the last couple of years the AFL's made a token effort to internationalise Aussie Rules. An Australian team has taken on the Irish in a game that's a hybrid version of Australian Football and its closest cousin, Gaelic Football. The games are no more than an exhibition, but Phil Cleary thinks it could become the basis of the Australian game taking on the world.

Phil Cleary: Gaelic Football offers a possibility. I think they've got to think outside the square, I think they really do need to make the Gaelic Football concept work and take it to America so that they can really combat soccer.

Paul Barclay: So you think that there is some scope for a hybrid game becoming internationalised?

 

"Aussie Rules, sometimes you're looking at it, and it looks really small-scale, it looks like just a little suburban game."

Phil Cleary: I think it's critical to the long-term future of Australian Rules Football. I think kids want to play on an international stage, I mean a global world, kids tune in to the Internet now, they're seeing another world out there, and Aussie Rules, sometimes you're looking at it, and it looks really small-scale, it looks like just a little suburban game.

Paul Barclay: Background Briefing's Co-ordinating Producer is Linda McGinness; Research, Paul Bolger; Technical production, David Bates; Executive Producer is Kirsten Garrett; I'm Paul Barclay. You're listening to Radio National.

Further information: The official AFL website http://afl.com.au/home/default.htm

Background Briefings